Long Noncoding RNA (lncRNA) Revisited

Several years ago, I posted a blog about long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which are defined as non-protein coding transcripts in the range of ~200 nt to ~100 kb long. Interest in lncRNA is driven in large part by a collective scientific desire to uncover and understand the existence and function of all forms of “RNA dark matter,” so named by analogy to “dark energy” in cosmology. The lncRNA component of RNA dark matter is certainly generated from transcription of noncoding (formerly “junk”) DNA, but much has yet to be elucidated about function.